Islam in Europe: the Bektashi community (Albania) joins the Day of prayer and fasting for peace

9 febbraio 2018 @ 9:23

(From Shkoder) “Of course! We try to pray for peace every single day and will support it, but always while working, helping each other. You cannot fight alone”. From Albania, and precisely from Shkoder, His Grace (Haxhi) Baba Edmond Brahimaj, leader of the Bektashi community, ensures he will join the Day of prayer and fasting for peace, launched by Pope Francis and also proposed to leaders of other religious faiths. “Man cannot kill man, and those who kill are not men”, the leader of the Bektashi community says. “There are several reasons such things happen, and such reasons are ignorance, poverty and selfishness. Only by fighting such three evils can we eradicate hatred from man’s heart”. A man of dialogue, Baba Brahimaj took part in other events promoted by the Holy See, such as some Days of prayer for peace in Assisi and the beatification of Mother Teresa in 2003. He met Pope Francis in his journey to Tirana in 2014 and went to see him in Rome in May 2016; on that occasion, they spoke of fraternity and of the importance that religious communities have for today’s societies. “We must join forces, have a common strategy, to cope with extremism and violence and to build peace”, he says to SIR during the 5th meeting of the national delegates of the European Bishops Conferences for dialogue with Islam, which is closing today. “I also said that to the apostolic nuncio, who is the Pope’s delegate here in Albania. I told him: come on, let’s help each other. There will be few of us, at first. It doesn’t matter. The story of mankind tells us it’s always a minority that chooses and follows good. But good wins, because the deeds it creates prove that it’s stronger than evil. Even if you are killed, even if you are persecuted”.